No perjury prosecution over costly VA hospital

ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 8, 2017Updated: June 8, 2017 10:30pm

DENVER - The Justice Department has declined to prosecute Veterans Affairs Department executives after lawmakers accused two of them of misleading Congress about massive cost overruns at a Denver-area VA hospital.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee asked for a perjury investigation last fall, claiming the executives repeatedly gave false testimony that masked serious problems with the project.

Government attorneys told the committee in a May 19 letter that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. Republican Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado released the letter to the Associated Press on Thursday.

The decision means no one has yet been fired or criminally charged since the cost of the hospital ballooned to nearly $1.7 billion, almost triple earlier estimates.

Investigators blamed the overruns on mismanagement by the VA, lavish design elements and other problems.

The hospital is scheduled to be completed next year.

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The VA executives targeted by lawmakers were Glenn Haggstrom, then the top official in charge of construction projects, and Stella Fiotes, director of the VA's Office of Construction and Facilities Management.